(01-03-2015, 11:32 PM)Mae Wrote:(01-03-2015, 10:17 PM)C Wrote: Keeper males are rare (I can't remember where, but I read something where the ratio was somewhere between 1:5 and 1:20), so a purely monogamous Keeper family would have to have a ton of children to make up for all the females who wouldn't be having kids at all.This is actually kind of how I imagined things to go >_>
The Matriarch is the only one who has children, and she keeps having children until she has at least one son (or at least a son and a daughter, on the chance she has a son first). Having a son is what guarantees the next generation, and she will trade sons with an unrelated/distant Matriarch so she'll have an unrelated male to 'give' to the daughter that succeeds her. Remaining daughters are encouraged to stay around to act as a court to the new Matriarch, but no-one really keeps them from wandering off to possibly find a 'free' male or whatever (less competition/opportunities to backstab). If a Matriarch dies before her mate and before she has a viable successor, one of her sisters can claim the now-free male and become the new Matriarch.
... I guess in a way what I was picturing was a sort of reverse of what the Seekers have when it comes to breeding rights -- a Keeper Matriarch is like a Nuhn, and all her sisters/daughters are like Tias. Since the breeding pool consists of one male, it -is- a monogamous relationship. There's just potential that a male could have multiple partners over the course of his breeding life because he got traded to a family that is prone to drama and backstabbing >_>
I could not resist responding to this thread any longer. However, I do not want to derail it into another topic about Miqo'te, so I will make this my only post about Miqo'te on this thread. I have been seeing a lot of posts about Miqo'te lately. Maybe a new thread about their lore should be made?
So, I would see the hypothetical structure stated by Mae as possibly viable were it not for a couple very clearly stated lore factors...
Keeper males are -wanderers-.
They can not be forced to be limited to one female Matriarch if they live a wanderer's lifestyle. They -are- hunters as this picture clearly says males will gift "game" to females. If a male wanders, that means he would be rather independent because the only thing that could force him to abide by anything as he wanders is his own belief system.
"Miqo'te are known to be very territorial, and many individuals tend to lead solitary lifestyles, particularly males. The few Miqo'te who have made the transition to life in Eorzean society are predominantly female." http://www.ffxivinfo.com/races/miqote.php
Again, stated that males are more solitary. Keepers are Matriarchal because the females tend to matters at home, and rule the family. They decide who they get to mate with as opposed to Seekers who have to mate with the Nunh. THAT is where Keepers and Seekers differ.
"rarely do even the largest Keeper of the Moon families have more than two or three sons. This is not by choice. Nature merely sees to it that more females are born to this race." http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threa...onventions
Human families can get quite large.
For example:
Male and Female pair off. They have four children. Their children have four children each. By the time the original male and female are grandparents, their family will be TWENTY-TWO strong.
However, rarely do even the largest Keeper families have more than two or three sons. Lets say the ratio is 1 male for every 5 females born. (That is optimistic).
If Keepers are monogamous:
Family A: Male and female pair off. They have five children, only one is a male.
Family B: Male and female pair off. They also have five children, and likewise one is a male.
They "trade" males. Because they are monogamous, only one of the four daughters from each family "A" and "B" gets to have children.
Family A and B: Only one pair each, and each pair -must- have five children to maintain current population numbers.
However, they live in a dangerous place and dangerous time. If any sort of danger hits the family, and reduces numbers, or kills their one male, they are screwed. Statistically, a pair in the example above would have to have ten children each in order to get a second male which would allow for long-term population growth (which you need in order to make up for death caused by things other than old age).
If Keepers have a similar gestation period as humans, and birth one to two children at a time on average (also like humans) then you are looking at 5+ to 10 years for a second male to be born. That is a lot of work for a single woman, and a lot can happen in that time span. However, if male birth rate is even less then one out of every five, can you imagine the amount of children one woman would need to have just to get two males? This would only work if Miqo'te had litters of children each time, and the fact that females only have two breasts suggests not.
Honestly I just can't see the low male birth rate, and the fact that they wander, making it possible for long-term monogamous pairings to sustain the racial population. If Keepers are monogamous, then it would only work long-term if they practiced short-term monogamous relationships. A wandering male pairs off with a female in a group he likes, stays with her long enough to get her pregnant then leaves her and wanders to the next group to pair with a new female.
The lore does not clearly state how Keepers breed, but short-term monogamy, promiscuous attitudes or polyamory are the only things that make sense for long-term sustaining and growth of the Keeper population.
Now, as for an on-topic contribution: The lore seems to suggest that both male Seekers (Tias) and male Keepers wander. I think cross-clan mating would be more common (but still relatively uncommon) than some might expect. All it would take is a wandering Tia to find a group of Keepers, or a wandering Keeper to run into a Seeker tribe with a few females who don't like the current Nunh.
If you are more keen on the theory that Miqo'te are less traditional in current times then it would be even more viable. The only difference would be diurnal and nocturnal. There would be plenty of overlapping awake time for some bow chicka, and maybe a few wow-wows.